As Parker and Herremans know now, after blowing off a bunch of reporters after practice here, things are different for NFL players than for everybody else. What's stunning is that they didn't have that figured out before setting out in Herremans' pitch-black van - a vehicle that looks like something straight out of a Cheech and Chong movie - with a couple of young local women.
These guys went to college, right? Don't they know how to block the bottom of the door with a towel, turn on the lava lamp, and chillax in private?
By leaving the dorm and taking to the winding, hilly roads in Herremans' Stealthmobile, the two players set themselves up for a world of unpleasantness. It was easy to brush off the media gathered at the end of the practice fields. Parker didn't break stride. Herremans kept his helmet on and fell in behind a phalanx of fellow linemen (who apparently didn't get the word that the NFL has outlawed the flying wedge).
It will not be so easy to brush off several other people.
For Parker, that starts with his wife, Beth, and includes head coach Andy Reid and, ultimately, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
For Herremans, who passed a blood-alcohol test, there will be only Reid and, possibly, some teammates.
After all, this incident happened because the coach pushed curfew back and gave players over age 30 (including Parker) yesterday morning off. If Reid is as good as his word, he has to rescind the over-30 perk and maintain a strict 11 p.m. curfew the rest of the way.
"That's the way it works," Reid said Monday in explaining why he chose to "punish" all the area media for the pact-breaching, injury-reporting actions of a few. "Peer pressure is the best pressure there is."
